Byline: Rick Moriarty Staff writer
Destiny USA executives said Wednesday they envision the massive project starting as a $5 billion retail and entertainment complex at the Syracuse Inner Harbor and then growing north toward Carousel Center mall.
Destiny's first phase would feature a 20-acre man-made lake - 'Lake Destiny' - for outdoor water sports and ice skating, 8,500 hotel rooms, a 135-boat marina, a widened canal to Onondaga Lake and an indoor facility housing a water park and aquarium, and retail and dining establishments, the executives said at an editorial board meeting at The Post-Standard.
At the same time, an addition of at least 800,000 square feet would be built onto Carousel Center to satisfy the requirements of a 30-year tax exemption agreement with the city, they said.
The land between the enlarged mall and Destiny's first phase could be used temporarily for parking. Hiawatha Boulevard would remain open and Bear Street would be closed during this phase.
In a second phase of the project, Destiny would be expanded from the Inner Harbor north to join Carousel Center and, eventually, over Interstate 81 to encompass part of the city's North Side, the executives said.
When finished, the entire project could come in as a $9 billion to $10 billion complex, they said. The confirmed estimate of the project has been $2.2 billion, although it has been clear that the cost would exceed that if it included the features, such as the hotel rooms, that had been projected.
The new scenario for Destiny would require the approval of the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency and Syracuse Common Council for two reasons.
The 30-year tax deal with the city limits Destiny to the area north of Bear Street and would have to be amended if Destiny is to start at the Inner Harbor, which is south of Bear Street.
City officials also would have to approve the closing of Bear Street for the project.
If all that cannot happen in time for construction to begin next year, it wouldn't delay their plan to develop the Inner Harbor area, the Destiny USA executives said.
The Inner Harbor portion of the project would cost $230 million.
The smaller project could stand on its own or be integrated into Destiny when the bigger project is built, said Stephen Congel, a Destiny USA executive and son of The Pyramid Cos. founder Robert Congel, the mall developer who is behind the Destiny project.
The stand-alone harbor project would include a 600-room hotel and two smaller buildings with upscale restaurants on the west shore; retail and dining in three buildings on the south shore; and buildings housing retail shops, restaurants and a marina headquarters on the piers on the east side of the harbor.
As part of its Inner Harbor proposal, Destiny has offered the state $20 million for the 40 acres that surround the harbor and has offered $400,000 to match a possible $400,000 federal grant to create an Erie Canal National Park headquarters at the harbor.
Stephen Congel said if the proposal is approved by the state, the 18-month project could start in January, with construction starting in the spring.
Destiny USA's proposal is competing with one from a development team of Sutton Real Estate Co. of Syracuse and Norstar Development USA LP of Buffalo. The Sutton-Norstar team will present its plans for the state-owned harbor, a former Barge Canal terminal south of Onondaga Lake, to the Lakefront Development Corp. today.
Destiny will present its plans to the corporation Friday.
The nonprofit development corporation will recommend one of the plans to the state Canal Corp., which will make the selection.
In marked contrast to Destiny's strictly commercial development plan, Sutton-Norstar has proposed a $98 million harbor development that emphasizes apartments, single-family homes and neighborhood retail shops on the west shore.
'We think the Inner Harbor should be developed as a residential neighborhood,' Sutton President Bradford Smith said Wednesday.
Smith declined to disclose how much Sutton-Norstar is offering the state for the harbor land, but said it was far less than the $500,000 an acre Destiny is offering.
Destiny executive Michael Lorenz said commercial development would generate far more tax revenues for local and state governments and create far more jobs than would a residential development of the harbor.
The new scenario for Destiny is not entirely new. Project executives had contemplated starting Destiny near the harbor and expanding it north in phases to the mall.
However, by last year they seemed to have settled on a plan that would start with construction at the mall and grow southward - a plan that would have required the closing of Hiawatha Boulevard but kept Bear Street open, at least temporarily.
But Lorenz said the development team's current thinking is to start the project at the harbor, where it would not interfere with the operations of Carousel Center and its expansion.
The 800,000-square-foot expansion planned for Carousel would stop short of Hiawatha Boulevard, so the road could remain open until Destiny's second phase was built. In the meantime, Destiny and government planners would have time to design a new transportation plan for the area to prepare it for Destiny's second phase.
Starting Destiny as a separate structure from Carousel, at least temporarily, also would help Congel overcome the public image of the project being merely a shopping mall expansion.
Critics have questioned the wisdom of extensive tax breaks and other public subsidies for a shopping mall.
Destiny officials have long sought to portray the project not as a mall, but as an entertainment and tourism center like no other in the world, one that would help rejuvenate the Upstate economy. They often object to media reports that call Destiny a mall expansion.
An aide to Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll said Driscoll was out of City Hall and not available to comment Wednesday afternoon on the latest plans for Destiny.
What's next
The Pyramid Cos.' proposal to develop the Inner Harbor as the starting point for Destiny USA is the latest step in the seven-year evolution of the proposed project. Here are some possible next steps:
The state Canal Corp. has said it wants to select the developer for the Inner Harbor by the end of 2004. If Pyramid is chosen, it will start construction in the second quarter of 2005, according to company executives.
Pyramid's 30-year property tax deal with the city and county will be nullified on Dec. 20 unless the company locks in private financing for no less than an 800,000-square-foot expansion of Carousel Center. Company spokesmen say they'll meet that deadline. If that happens, the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency would issue bonds for the project no later than the end of 2005 to trigger the 30-year tax exemption.
Pyramid intends to reopen talks with the city and county to expand the boundaries of the PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) agreement to include the area south of Bear Street, which is not now in the tax deal.
What's new
The version of the Destiny USA plan presented by the developer Wednesday includes some new elements, including:
A 20-acre man-made lake on the western shore of the Inner Harbor.
Construction of Destiny would start near the harbor terminal and spread north to the mall, instead of growing south from Carousel Center.
Bear Street would be closed and Hiawatha Boulevard kept open until later in the project.
A $5 billion first-phase price tag, with the entire Destiny USA project in the $9 billion to $10 billion range.
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PHOTO
John Berry/Staff photographer
DESTINY USA representative Stephen Congel shows the revised site plan for The Pyramid Cos.' proposed megamall in Syracuse. Congel and Destiny executives Peter McCue and Michael Lorenz met with members of The Post-Standard editorial board Wednesday and revealed construction would start at the Inner Harbor and proceed north to Carousel Center. The first phase of the project is now up to $5 billion. Color.
MAP/ GRAPHIC: Inner Harbor development proposals. The Post-Standard. Note: For text see microfilm. Color.
